authentication

name

authentication

description

Authentication and authorization for ASP.NET Core. Covers JWT bearer tokens, OpenID Connect, ASP.NET Identity, authorization policies, role and claim-based authorization, and API key authentication. Load this skill when implementing login, protecting endpoints, designing authorization rules, or when the user mentions "auth", "JWT", "bearer token", "OIDC", "OpenID Connect", "Identity", "claims", "roles", "authorize", "RequireAuthorization", "API key", or "cookie auth".

Authentication & Authorization

Core Principles

1. Use ASP.NET Identity for user management — Don't build your own user store. Identity handles password hashing, lockout, two-factor, email confirmation, and (since .NET 10) built-in passkey/WebAuthn support for passwordless login.
2. JWT for APIs, cookies for web apps — APIs use Bearer token authentication; Blazor/MVC apps use cookie authentication.
3. Policy-based authorization over roles — Policies are testable, composable, and more expressive than [Authorize(Roles = "Admin")].
4. Never store secrets in code — Use user secrets in development, Azure Key Vault / environment variables in production.

Patterns

JWT Bearer Authentication

// Program.cs
builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
    .AddJwtBearer(options =>
    {
        options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
        {
            ValidateIssuer = true,
            ValidateAudience = true,
            ValidateLifetime = true,
            ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
            ValidIssuer = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Issuer"],
            ValidAudience = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Audience"],
            IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(
                Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(builder.Configuration["Jwt:Key"]!)),
            ClockSkew = TimeSpan.Zero
        };
    });

builder.Services.AddAuthorization();

Token Generation

Use JsonWebTokenHandler from Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens — it is the maintained, span-based handler that ASP.NET Core itself validates with. JwtSecurityTokenHandler (System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt) is the legacy stack.

public sealed class TokenService(IConfiguration config, TimeProvider clock)
{
    private static readonly JsonWebTokenHandler TokenHandler = new();

    public string GenerateToken(User user, IEnumerable<string> roles)
    {
        var key = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(config["Jwt:Key"]!));
        var now = clock.GetUtcNow();

        var descriptor = new SecurityTokenDescriptor
        {
            Issuer = config["Jwt:Issuer"],
            Audience = config["Jwt:Audience"],
            IssuedAt = now.UtcDateTime,
            Expires = now.AddHours(1).UtcDateTime,
            Claims = new Dictionary<string, object>
            {
                [JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Sub] = user.Id,
                [JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Email] = user.Email!,
                [JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Name] = user.UserName!,
                ["roles"] = roles.ToArray()
            },
            SigningCredentials = new SigningCredentials(key, SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256)
        };

        return TokenHandler.CreateToken(descriptor);
    }
}

Policy-Based Authorization

// Define policies
builder.Services.AddAuthorizationBuilder()
    .AddPolicy("AdminOnly", policy => policy.RequireRole("Admin"))
    .AddPolicy("CanManageOrders", policy => policy
        .RequireAuthenticatedUser()
        .RequireClaim("permission", "orders:write"))
    .AddPolicy("MinimumAge", policy => policy
        .AddRequirements(new MinimumAgeRequirement(18)));

// Custom requirement + handler
public class MinimumAgeRequirement(int minimumAge) : IAuthorizationRequirement
{
    public int MinimumAge => minimumAge;
}

public class MinimumAgeHandler(TimeProvider clock) : AuthorizationHandler<MinimumAgeRequirement>
{
    protected override Task HandleRequirementAsync(
        AuthorizationHandlerContext context,
        MinimumAgeRequirement requirement)
    {
        var dateOfBirthClaim = context.User.FindFirst("date_of_birth");
        if (dateOfBirthClaim is not null &&
            DateOnly.TryParse(dateOfBirthClaim.Value, out var dob) &&
            dob.AddYears(requirement.MinimumAge) <= DateOnly.FromDateTime(clock.GetUtcNow().DateTime))
        {
            context.Succeed(requirement);
        }
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

Protecting Endpoints

// Protect an entire group
app.MapGroup("/api/admin")
    .WithTags("Admin")
    .RequireAuthorization("AdminOnly")
    .MapAdminEndpoints();

// Protect individual endpoints
group.MapPost("/", CreateOrder)
    .RequireAuthorization("CanManageOrders");

// Allow anonymous on a protected group
group.MapGet("/public-info", GetPublicInfo)
    .AllowAnonymous();

OpenID Connect (External Identity Provider)

builder.Services.AddAuthentication(options =>
{
    options.DefaultScheme = CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
    options.DefaultChallengeScheme = OpenIdConnectDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
})
.AddCookie()
.AddOpenIdConnect(options =>
{
    options.Authority = builder.Configuration["Oidc:Authority"];
    options.ClientId = builder.Configuration["Oidc:ClientId"];
    options.ClientSecret = builder.Configuration["Oidc:ClientSecret"];
    options.ResponseType = "code";
    options.SaveTokens = true;
    options.Scope.Add("openid");
    options.Scope.Add("profile");
    options.Scope.Add("email");
});

Accessing Current User

// In minimal API handlers — inject ClaimsPrincipal or HttpContext
group.MapGet("/me", (ClaimsPrincipal user) =>
{
    var userId = user.FindFirstValue(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier);
    var email = user.FindFirstValue(ClaimTypes.Email);
    return TypedResults.Ok(new { userId, email });
}).RequireAuthorization();

Anti-patterns

Don't Use Role Strings Everywhere

// BAD — magic strings, hard to refactor, not testable
[Authorize(Roles = "Admin,SuperAdmin,Manager")]
public class AdminController { }

// GOOD — policy-based
builder.Services.AddAuthorizationBuilder()
    .AddPolicy("AdminAccess", p => p.RequireRole("Admin", "SuperAdmin", "Manager"));

group.MapGet("/", Handler).RequireAuthorization("AdminAccess");

Don't Store Secrets in appsettings.json

// BAD — committed to source control
{
  "Jwt": {
    "Key": "super-secret-key-12345"
  }
}

# GOOD — use user secrets in development
dotnet user-secrets set "Jwt:Key" "super-secret-key-12345"

Don't Skip Token Validation

// BAD — disabling validation
options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
{
    ValidateIssuer = false,      // DON'T
    ValidateAudience = false,    // DON'T
    ValidateLifetime = false,    // DEFINITELY DON'T
};

// GOOD — validate everything (see JWT Bearer Authentication pattern above for full setup)

Decision Guide

Scenario	Recommendation
REST API	JWT Bearer authentication
Blazor Server / MVC	Cookie authentication
External identity provider	OpenID Connect
User registration / login	ASP.NET Identity
Passwordless login	ASP.NET Identity passkeys (WebAuthn, built-in since .NET 10)
Permission checking	Policy-based authorization
Multi-tenant API	Claims-based with tenant claim
API-to-API communication	Client credentials (OAuth 2.0)
Simple API keys	Custom AuthenticationHandler<T>